Best flight delay ever? Passengers stranded in Hawaii for three days given £500

Air New Zealand passengers stranded over faulty plane

A group of 227 Air New Zealand passengers who have been stranded in Hawaii for three days have now also received £500 each in compensation.

The airline has apologised "unreservedly" for the hitch, which some reports have described as the best delay ever.

The flight was due to depart on Saturday from Honolulu for Auckland, but was unable to leave because of problems with an engine sensor, reports Fox News.

But, while some people may think it would be great to have your Hawaii holiday extended by three days (with extra spending money) the reality wasn't quite so pleasurable, according to reports on Twitter.

Doug Wilson said his children and grandchildren were not enjoying the long stopover, writing: "Our kids and grand kids making their 3rd bus trip to Honolulu airport trying get home."

He added that the family were provided with hotel rooms for two nights but arrived at the hotel in the middle of the night both times and had to make three trips to the airport, with long waits.

Talking to Stuff.co.nz, he said thought the compensation offered by Air New Zealand was adequate, but the delay had still ruined the holiday.

General manager of customer experience, Carrie Hurihanganui, told the CTV News: "Due to the lengthy nature of this disruption, the difficulty we've experienced in adequately communicating with customers and the fact we have repeatedly let them down, we have made the decision that in addition to our unreserved apology we will also be compensating each customer $1000 in either cash or Airpoints Dollars."

According to the Daily Mail, she added: "Due to an unfortunate combination of events this group of passengers has travelled to Honolulu Airport on three occasions expecting to fly, however, on each occasion the aircraft has been unable to depart because of a series of evolving engineering issues.

"A part was required and we attempted to source a replacement within the US, however, despite assurances, the right part was not supplied. Fortunately, as a backup, we also loaded the part onto NZ10 from our Auckland Technical Operations base this morning and this will arrive in Honolulu this evening."